---
title: "What is a good cold email bounce rate? – Invenitor"
description: "Bounce rate is the share of your emails that could not be delivered. Hunter calls 2% a widely adopted benchmark for cold email. Here is what to do about it."
url: https://invenitor.com/glossary/cold-email-bounce-rate
agents: https://invenitor.com/llms.txt
mcp: https://api.invenitor.com/mcp
---

[Home](https://invenitor.com/)/[Glossary](https://invenitor.com/glossary)/Cold email bounce rate

Glossary

# What is a good cold email bounce rate?

Cold email bounce rate is the share of emails you sent to strangers that could not be delivered, and Hunter describes staying under 2% as a widely adopted benchmark.

By Invenitor team. Updated 2026-11-01.

## How do you work it out?

Divide the emails that bounced by the emails you sent, then multiply by 100\. If you send 50 and 2 bounce, your rate is 4%.

## What counts as good?

Hunter says bounces should stay under 2% of all sent emails and calls that "a widely adopted benchmark in the cold email industry" ([Hunter](https://hunter.io/blog/soft-bounce-vs-hard-bounce/)). It is a rule of thumb from a vendor, not a law, and it is not a limit set by mailbox providers.

## Why does it matter?

Repeated bounces tell mailbox providers that you do not know your recipients, which can push your other mail towards spam. See [how to lower your bounce rate](https://invenitor.com/guides/lower-your-email-bounce-rate).

## Guides on this

- [How to lower your cold email bounce rate](https://invenitor.com/guides/lower-your-email-bounce-rate)

## Related terms

- [Hard bounce](https://invenitor.com/glossary/hard-bounce)
- [Soft bounce](https://invenitor.com/glossary/soft-bounce)
- [Email verification](https://invenitor.com/glossary/email-verification)

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